bosun21

Sorry gentlemen but no Nikons nor Habichts to show. I am more than happy with my Helios Apollo 15x70’s and my small hand held 8x40’s with an 8.2 degree FOV for scanning the sky quickly being hand held.

Great idea as once you get the secondary correct and locked up tightly with the Concenter you can virtually forget about it. A tweak to the primary and you’re in business.

That’s collimation error. Out of focus doesn’t create streaks on any reflector I’ve owned.

I believe that mount is like an AZ5 alt/az mount. In that case you can just adapt the Starsense holder with a finder shoe and mount it directly to the telescope itself.

My supplied counterweight had too small a bore to fit on the supplied shaft. Left me scratching my head but I had other spares from other skywatcher mounts to do its job.

Nice images @Stu. I really need to use my as yet unused MSM phone mount. I was waiting for M42 to join our night sky to try it in combination with my Pixel 6 pro. You have now nudged me to use it on the moon.

Not on the 127 model. The smaller models can’t be collimated.

Thank you 👍.

When mine arrived the locking clutch knobs were virtually falling off due to not being secured by the fixing screws. I removed both the clutch knobs and repositioned them so that they have a really short distance of travel. They also lock their respective axis more tightly. Regarding the azimuth knobs I just had to loosen the grub screw to slide it out a little as it was rubbing against the body of the mount. IMG_1457.MOV

There’s no sense in that as the smaller field stop is ideally suited to the 1.25” eyepiece. There’s zero benefit from putting it in a larger heavier barrel with no gains optically whatsoever.

Just received a new Skytee II mount and tripod to accommodate my recently acquired 6” CC. Also a new ADM saddle for it which is now fitted.

I feel a bit foolish asking this but I just fitted a new ADM saddle to my Skytee II mount and I loosened the clamp turning screws too much and the springs and washers jettisoned across the room. I just need to ask where the nylon washers go in the saddle. I’ve got it reassembled and it’s working fine but my OCD is niggling me as to whether the washers are in the correct place. Thanks.

Should have bought the 4.5mm Morpheus Clive. It’s a fantastically sharp eyepiece and it’s my go to for Mars.

I would definitely go for the 127 for the extra aperture and the fact that the mirror is able to be collimated whereas the 102 can’t. Maks hold their collimation great, but you never know if you would give it a serious bang in the future requiring collimation.

I have placed an ADC in my next shopping list for the planets.

I used mine with an ASIAIR plus and it worked perfectly. It sounds as though it could be a lemon. I’ll defer to others that use NINA etc. You should start a separate thread for it. PS I hope you fitted it to the single speed side of the focuser.

Nice image 👍. You have some nice detail captured.

I fitted the EAF to a previous Starfield I owned and I removed the large locking silver thumb screw and the two smaller recessed grub screws. These hold the EAF well and it worked perfectly. HTH

You can’t put coordinates into the Starsense app. I think you would need to try sky safari but some of those named stars are obscure ones and may not even be in the index.

The focuser is up to the task but it’s not up to the quality of a Steeltrack. I am going to use the scope first to see if I like it before I too will probably upgrade the focuser.

Will do 👍.

Courtesy of @Stu1smartcookie an almost new 6” CC scope. Got it perfectly collimated and will eventually be mounting it on a Skytee II with a Starsense unit.

I totally agree with you. On my next excursion to Scotland I’ll only be taking my 4” frac as that’s what I ended up using for a lot of the time I was last there. Plus it’s a lot easier to transport.

Your 8” will outshine smaller aperture scopes in a bortle 1 sky. When I last was observing in bortle 1 skies in Scotland I had a 4” refractor and 8” dobsonian with me and it was no contest. The 8” was brighter and went far deeper.

I honestly don’t mind setting up my full EQ mount and telescope(s) but only if it’s a cloud free night. The gaps between these cloud free nights can be lengthy ensuring that I’ll be chomping at the bit to get back out there regardless of the weight. I am however in the process of putting together a light grab and go setup for those gaps in the clouds that are far more frequent than the former cloudless nights.